I installed Windows.

@dascandy42

is this a follow up on our "ideapad" adventure from last week?

@oschonrock No, unrelated. Firmware update is now done (after 4.5 hours of wrestling with Windows installers and 20 minutes of firmware flashing), so back to normality.

@dascandy42

wow.. well done.. I have avoided it.. couldn't face it.. knew it would be half a day.

did you manage to boot windoze
off USB in the end?

@oschonrock It did work. Just about the last attempt before I was going to "call a friend". @janwilmans linked me https://itsfoss.com/bootable-windows-usb-linux/ which tells you to use Ventoy, which apparently allows it to boot from EFI, and breaks the argument between the EFI/Bios and Windows setup.
How to Create a Bootable Windows 10 USB in Linux

This tutorial shows you how to create a bootable Windows 10 USB in Linux with and without a GUI tool called Ventoy.

It's FOSS

@dascandy42 @janwilmans

great to know

I 'll save that reference in case I get reallllly bored over xmas

@oschonrock No wait, partially related. I had myself confused with my laptop and desktop and thought I needed Windows for the BIOS as well. Desktop has an Asrock mobo and they just give you a file to put on a fat32 usb stick. Could've done that any point in the past 3 years...

@dascandy42

Yeah.. that's the way.. !

why do we need a whole 64bit GUI and GBs of OS to write some stuff to to flash on the MB?

@oschonrock you forgot Cortana, online logins and uploading whatever it can get its hands on.
@oschonrock First time I've had to unplug a network cable to be able to continue installing.